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HALLELUJAH! ST MARK’S CHURCH IS SAVED
Our campaign helps win battle against ‘unethical’ spa plan
A CONGREGATION is in rapture after planning chiefs ripped up controversial proposals to transform a historic Mayfair church into a “house of pleasure” – following a heavyweight campaign from the West End Extra.
But the multi-millionaire property developer behind the plans, George Hammer, accused the congregation of “criminal damage” to the Grade I-listed St Mark’s Church and vowed to challenge the popular decision on appeal.
A huge roar and cries of “hallelujah!” from around 100 protesters in the public gallery met committee chairman Councillor Robert Davis’s decision in City Hall last night (Thursday).
He said: “I have spent half of Saturday reading the documents and I have come to the only decision that is right, and that is to refuse the application.”
He added: “It is very important that we move swiftly to find an alternative solution to get the repairs financed.
“It is my belief that another candidate can be found and it is on that evidence that the application is rejected.”
Mr Hammer criticised Cllr Davis for “short-sightedly bowing to emotional arguments” and warned that unless his £6million “cash on the table” offer to restore the church while opening health spa inside was matched in the next six months he was very confident of winning on appeal”.
Lady Sainsbury, the wife of former Conservative minister Tim Sainsbury, and the Conservative Lord Adair Turner braved the cold outside the entrance to City Hall to demand “common sense” from the planning team.
Lady Sainsbury said: “What is proposed marks not only a loss of a community facility but also an irrevocable change to a special heritage resource, a Grade I-listed building.
“Are those who meet tonight – to make what will be a historic decision – prepared to suffer the burden of conscience if they allow a house of prayer to become a house of pleasure, allowing the further disintegration of this community at a time when the nation faces alarming levels of disaffection, poverty and violence?”
Lord Turner added: “You cannot separate ethics from the market place. We face turbulent economic times because of greed. We need to learn those lessons. This application is not ethical.”
Mr Hammer’s plan is to change the use of the church in North Audley Street to for commercial use and oust 120 parishioners of the Commonwealth Church from the hallowed grounds where President Eisenhower once preached and the abolitionist William Wilberforce lectured.
The wide-ranging community uses, which include Lady Sainsbury’s women’s group and events helping teenagers understand the dangers of knife crime, would have been lost forever on the site.
After the decision, Kirk Mitchell, chair of the Save St Mark’s Campaign, said: “Westminster Council have seen the light and nipped this thing in the bud. The Hammer deal was always seen as community vampirism – it was taking away a community facility. The congregation is finally celebrating.”
But Mr Hammer, who lives in a four-storey Georgian mansion next door to the church, was unrepentant.
In his first public statement on the St Mark’s decision he told the West End Extra: “I am the only one to make a concrete offer of hard cash that would restore this church. I have been into the church and I have photographic evidence of criminal damage by the current occupant.
“The floors have been taken up, there are holes drilled in the walls; there are artefacts of architectural importance that have been removed.
“There is irreparable damage to the roof and water is coming through into the arch. There are rats and what this is is a blight on the local landscape.”
“The diocese of London marketed the church extensively and through all of this I am the only one that has showed an interest.
“The congregation is just 120 – £6million into 120: you do the maths.
“The campaign has failed to find any guarantee that another offer will be made.”
Holy Trinity Church, Brompton Road – one of the fastest-growing churches in Britain – has said it is ready to fund the renovation, but is yet to make a formal cash offer.
Mr Hammer said his dream was to open a “world centre for alternative medicine” in a church that would provide free treatment for cancer patients – an idea that came to him following the death of a close relative from the disease. |
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